Can you imagine feeling pain from the moment you woke up until you went to sleep? Most of us struggle to envision what that would be like, yet for hundreds of thousands of our loved ones and friends with Fibromyalgia, that’s the road they walk each day.
A groundbreaking new movie is setting out to tell their story. A Happy Seven is the product of screenwriters Sophie and Tessa Meath. Sophie, who directs what she describes as an experimental short film, explains that the idea for the project came after her sister Tessa was diagnosed with Fibro.
“The idea of this film was born in my mind shortly after Tessa was diagnosed. I knew how powerful this life is when you see it up close, and I knew how difficult it was to understand. I started to wonder what it would be like if we were able to share this with people, and – as a filmmaker – I’m always looking for those types of stories.”
“As time went on, I began to realize that this could work. I could do this. I’m in the perfect position – being so close to my sister who has such bad Fibro. I could attempt to translate this life for people in a way that could be an incredible blessing, and – thus far that journey has been absolutely incredible. It blows me away every single day because God is doing so much good through it.”
Tessa takes us behind the scenes of brokenness she experienced after first receiving her diagnosis, but also points to the purpose she began to clearly see through her journey.
“That was a pretty rough time. In the six months to a year after – just being told there’s something inherently wrong in your body.”
“I continued to get physically sicker and, I had to basically watch my life be taken apart. Things I had always made so pivotal and built into such a huge part of my identity, I could no longer do. And that was emotionally devastating.”
That sense of loss was accompanied by physical and spiritual struggles.
“I got to meet very intimately a lot of my idols that I didn’t know I had been holding so tightly.”
“Physically, my body was almost useless. I wake up every day, and think: “can I get out of bed? I don’t know.'”
“Realizing the things I’ve basically been living for – those are gone from my life. Having to deal with that and basically rethink everything I’ve been doing, and everything I understood about myself, and what God had given me and what God expected of me.”
“Suddenly I had to cope with the question – ‘Well – what if it’s not?‘ So it was a very constructive time, but before it could be constructive it had to be destructive.”
Facing her challenges head on, Tessa began to emerge from that period and discover that God was working mightily through her condition.
“Realizing that there is a definitive point in time when God added this to my life – and then being able to move beyond that and see the beauty that He was working through it. And realizing – I can say honestly – I cannot wish this away. Because I don’t know life without it and, because I do know what I have learned through it.
“That was honestly one of the most moving revelations I could have had. Because you can appreciate the weight of glory. And it’s completely worth it.”
